Well if you thought my dilemma about which printer to buy was an epic you should read this about the dilemmas concerning what to feed it! Makes the Harry Potter series look like Jane & Peters Big Day Out At The Seaside.....if you remember them from primary school!
If you have read my review of the Epson R2880 you will of noted that after testing the use of Matt Black [MB] and Photo Black [PB] I had decided that I would use only the PB in my printing as I had no need for matt papers and if I did the PB does a good enough job on matt anyway using a bespoke profile and a suitable media setting. For our work we need one workhorse paper that can be used for A4 and bigger event prints as well as for our studio prints from portrait sessions. Next we required a fine art paper which could be used for more special print work for both selling and for personal use. In the end once all the testing was done I actually ended up with three and one held on the subs bench.
First up was a trip to the SWPP show which I recommend you attend if you live near London and can't be bothered with the trip to Focus. Quite frankly you can find most of the stuff you require there anyway which is why I have avoided Focus for the last two years. After exhausting all the paper manufacturers with my best interrogation techniques learnt from years of military service they finally relented and palmed me off with their test packs...so it was off home to give the Epson a thorough thrashing!
Well the first choice of paper was to be our general purpose studio and event paper. Requirements were to be either a semi-gloss or oyster/luster paper as we already used the excellent Canon semi-gloss prior to this as well as the gloss and statistics showed that the vast majority of customers preferred the semi look so in the end we dropped the gloss offering. Price and quality were the next priorities. Canons semi-gloss was actually quite well priced as opposed to the Epson semi which we found hard to find at a good price.
So the hunt was on for a third party paper manufacturer which boiled down to Ilford, Fotospeed, Permajet and a smaller less know company called Pinnacle. Price wise Pinnacle was the cheapest by quite a margin followed by Fotospeed so I decided to start the testing with these two papers first and see how they measured up against both Canon prints and Epson. The first thing I should point out when testing is to use two well known pictures you have, one for colour and one for black and white. Make sure your colour picture contains colours which you know well and know how they should be replicated. Here are my test pictures picked for a variety of reasons which I will explain.
This one is used because often printers struggle in producing a good red. The colour of the skin tone is a test along with the colour of the bra and its stitching detail shows how sharp the ink is laid onto the surface. If the paper allows the ink to flow and spread on its surface then fine detail will be lost. A sharp paper will hold the ink and dry.
This image gives a full range of the greyscale and also tests sharpness with the detail in the bodice.
These next two images ask a lot from a paper and inkset. The main sunset image has both subtle and strong colouring which must be accurately rendered as well as being able to show detail in the shadow areas and not blocking out.
This image has more subtle colouring which again must be replicated accurately by the ink and paper combination. I'm pleased to announce all the papers that I choose in the end did this with astounding accuracy with both the generic supplied profiles and even more so with the bespoke!!!
However, having said this the most crucial aspect of printing which is more important than the paper is to use a good profile and understand your print process colour management. If the profile you use for testing purposes is not accurate then bare in mind this can easily be rectified by a bespoke profile which I will cover later. Each third party paper manufacturer should provide a generic test profile to use for your particular printer and just as importantly give you the correct media setting to use, for example which of your own manufacturers paper settings such as gloss, semi-gloss, matte etc should you use. It doesn't necessarily follow that if the paper you are testing is gloss that you need to use the gloss setting.
This image gives a full range of the greyscale and also tests sharpness with the detail in the bodice.
These next two images ask a lot from a paper and inkset. The main sunset image has both subtle and strong colouring which must be accurately rendered as well as being able to show detail in the shadow areas and not blocking out.
This image has more subtle colouring which again must be replicated accurately by the ink and paper combination. I'm pleased to announce all the papers that I choose in the end did this with astounding accuracy with both the generic supplied profiles and even more so with the bespoke!!!However, having said this the most crucial aspect of printing which is more important than the paper is to use a good profile and understand your print process colour management. If the profile you use for testing purposes is not accurate then bare in mind this can easily be rectified by a bespoke profile which I will cover later. Each third party paper manufacturer should provide a generic test profile to use for your particular printer and just as importantly give you the correct media setting to use, for example which of your own manufacturers paper settings such as gloss, semi-gloss, matte etc should you use. It doesn't necessarily follow that if the paper you are testing is gloss that you need to use the gloss setting.
Both papers tested were Oyster types which I must confess I prefer over semi-matt as they have a little more sparkle and I feel they bridge the gap between matt and gloss better. Both the Fotospeed Oyster and the Pinnacle Lustre produced excellent quality prints of similar quality to each other and the Epson & Canon prints so not much in it. However, there was one clear leader for me and that was the Pinnacle Luster. Its price is incredibly cheap compared to the others and it also weighed in at 300gsm as opposed to the others at around the 270gsm mark. This gives the paper a feeling of quality as soon as you pick it up and this cannot be understated as well as the quality of the print coupled with the price made it a clear winner. Price is £11.49 Inc VAT for 40 x A4 buy direct from http://www.paperspectrum.co.uk/ Postage is a little steep at £6.95 when buying under £40 worth but still makes the paper far cheaper than anyone else when including their postage.
Pinnacle as a company I cannot fault. When you call them you speak to someone who knows what they are talking about and if they don't they will put someone on that does. Emails are answered promptly and as long as you purchase their paper they offer a bespoke profile service for your printer which I received within 48 hrs of them receiving my test prints. Excellent service! The profile was excellent as well and the Epson is now happily churning out superb prints in colour and B&W with this paper and profile. I must add at this point that Fotospeed provided a very good service as well just beaten on price and weight.
Next up I wanted touchy feely type paper to mainly print out on black and white with a surface suitable for the Photo Black ink [PB] and a texture to the surface. This was a hard paper to find but I eventually found a paper by Perma Jet which I had in an old test pack of theirs called Textured Art Silk. This was a paper that was 271gsm and had a lovely textured surface which looked completely Matt until you printed onto it and the print then came out with a beautiful soft sheen that gave B&W prints a wonderful look and depth to the blacks....simply astounding! I can only describe the prints as looking as if they are printed onto buffed leather if that makes sense? Perfect, all I had to do now was hunt down the paper at a good price!
After a couple of frustrating hours trying to find the paper on the net to no avail a phone call to Perma Jet left me in a semi state of shock as that particular paper had been discontinued....however.....there was a light at the end of the tunnel as the paper had been replaced by a less textured version called Smooth Art Silk at 300 gsm. Once the test pack had arrived it was with trepidation I reprinted my B&W picture to compare to the old. First thing is it was quite a bit smoother and at first I felt disappointed with the result. It had the same lovely sheen but I felt the texture was lacking. However after a few more print of various subjects it has grown on me and I have found it to be a better all round paper as certain subjects do look better without so much texture.
To be frank the whole textured surface bit can only be fully appreciated with the print in your hand. I find that once the print is framed you tend to loose that textured sense as you need to light the print well so as not to accentuate the texture too much which can look very bad if you allow it to cast shadows. So in reality losing the texture is not that big a deal. The print still has a quality feel and weight and still retains enough texture to make it feel special and in my opinion it has a unique look among papers which I love.
I was glad to see Perma Jet now offers a free bespoke profiling service which like Pinnacle was fast and efficient with an excellent result. I have to say though that both companies generic profiles were very good to start with and I would estimate only around a 10% improvement being made by the bespoke profile. One word of warning this is quite an expensive paper and is only really used by me for special projects. Best price I can find is Richard Frankfurt £26.38 inc VAT for 25 x A4. However postage is steep at just under £10. Try some of the other retailers mentioned throughout the post and at at the end as they may work out cheaper.
Last but not least I wanted a special smooth fine art paper that could take PB with a gloss finish but one that was not too glossy as to distract the eye. It was time to investigate the Baryta type papers. As with everything it was a cost driven exercise as i really feel that if the cost of the paper is too expensive it ends up deterring you from actually printing your pictures which is a great shame because for me there is no greater satisfaction as a photographer than seeing your picture roll off a printer. If you have not heard of Baryta papers then you should read this excellent review on luminous Landscape.
So again after trawling the web it came down to two. Harman Fibre Gloss & Ilford Gold Fibre Silk 23p difference between them per sheet of A3+. Harman @ £93.81 per 50 and Ilford @ £74.86 per 50. Once the test packs arrived it was back down to comparing. The Ilford was a warmer tone paper with a less glossy finish than the Harman. The review from Luminous Landscape above is a zillion times better than I can do, however, suffice to say I too settled for the Gold Fibre Silk as I preferred the less glossy finish and the slightly more stippled surface added to its appeal plus it is a great price. The Ilford profile for the Epson R2880 on the website was so accurate I have not bothered to obtain a bespoke one yet but probably will in the future. Best price was at Warehouse Express. Cost £74.86 per 50 and only £3.99 to send.
So that was it, I had my three papers which in truth could be reduced to two if i dropped the Perma Jet Smooth Art Silk and use the Gold Fibre Silk instead which gives outstanding B&W as well as colour prints, however, I just can't seem to let it go, it has that special something that makes it stand out above the others for uniqueness and satisfaction when printing on to it, all i can say is give it a go for yourself. In fact all papers are subjective and totally down to personal opinion and choice, I just hope this review can give you a starting point and help save you time and money.
But wait..... there is one new kid on the block. In fact its been around awhile but its price has put me off until the other day I happened to find it on the Epson UK site on offer. Its their own fine art paper called Epson Traditional Photo Paper on offer at half price!!! So i bought a pack of A4 and A3+. Now once again there is an excellent review on this paper on Luminous Landscape here. I had read this article previously and it took a long time to realise that Epson for some unknown reason had deemed it necessary to call it Exhibition Fibre Paper in the USA. However once I found the price out over here I dismissed it due to cost until I found it on offer.
As to the prints, what can I say! I agree with the reviewer above the prints are sharp accurate with the deepest black I have ever seen, I love it! The Ilford GFS which is very good in its own right has been put on the sub bench for now and I am stocking up on the Epson Paper as I write so it may be a few years before Ilford GFS gets to earn a cap for team iVisualise. I might, I suspect, when faced with it, grit my teeth and pay full whack for the Epson Traditional Photo Paper when my stocks run out....it's that good!!!
Other suppliers to try;
If you do get a hold of some Epson Traditional Photo Paper then download these excellent profiles from the guys at Pixel Genius.
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